The House at the End of Blackwood Road
For twenty years, everyone in town agreed the house was empty.
Then someone started answering the door.
The House
The house at the end of Blackwood Road had been empty for as long as anyone could remember.
Its windows were dark. Its garden had disappeared beneath weeds. The paint had peeled away from the siding years ago, leaving the boards gray and weather-beaten.
Nobody went there.
Not because there was a fence.
Not because there was a warning sign.
There simply wasn't any reason to.
The house had been abandoned.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
The First Visit
The first person to knock on the door in decades was a delivery driver.
It was late in the afternoon in October.
He had been given an address and a package that required a signature.
When he reached the house, he initially thought he had been sent to the wrong location.
There was no visible driveway.
No mailbox.
No number on the door.
He checked his phone again.
The address was correct.
So he knocked.
Someone answered.
The driver later described the person as an elderly woman wearing a dark dress.
She stood just inside the doorway.
She didn't smile.
She didn't ask who he was.
She simply stared at him.
The driver explained that he had a package.
The woman told him to leave it on the porch.
Then she closed the door.
He left.
The next morning, the package was gone.
The Lights
A few days later, someone noticed something strange.
There was a light in one of the upstairs windows.
At first, nobody thought much of it.
Then the light appeared again the following night.
And the night after that.
People began watching the house.
The light moved from room to room.
Sometimes it remained still for hours.
Sometimes it disappeared suddenly.
Nobody could explain who was turning the lights on.
The house still had no electricity.
Footsteps
The first report of footsteps came from a neighbor walking past the property.
He heard someone moving around inside.
Slow footsteps.
From one room to another.
Then a loud impact.
He stopped.
The sound came again.
Three slow steps.
Then silence.
He never went inside.
The Second Knock
Several weeks later, another person knocked on the door.
This time it was a local teenager.
He wanted to see whether the stories were true.
His friends waited at the end of the driveway while he walked toward the house.
He knocked.
Nothing happened.
He knocked again.
Still nothing.
Then he heard someone knocking back.
From inside.
Three times.
He ran.
His friends said he refused to talk about what happened for several days.
When he finally did, he said there was one thing he couldn't explain.
The footsteps had followed him down the porch.
What Was Inside
Nobody has ever produced a confirmed explanation for the house.
There are no public records showing anyone currently living there.
The property has changed ownership several times.
Each owner eventually leaves.
Some say the house is simply abandoned.
Some say it was never truly empty.
And according to people who still live near Blackwood Road, the upstairs window occasionally lights up after midnight.
No one has gone back to knock.
At least, no one who is willing to admit it.
Some doors are better left unanswered.
